Oh Yes...

[Kitiara]

At about 4am tonight (English time that is), the new Churchill site will go live. I've spent the last 6 months busting several vital organs trying to single-handedly do this so it's perfect. :cons:

Consequently, I am very nervous right now. :stunned:

Therefore apologies for being a bit tetchy / absent of late. :)

[nobody]

Ohh ohh! What's the link?
Don't be nervous, it'll be fine.

[upuaut]

Break a leg dear. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.

[Yeldarb]

link? what time in the US is your four in the morning?

[Kitiara]

The URL is www.churchill.com.

Don't worry, it's all about insurance and it will be boring as hell. I know. It's not meant to be fun and exciting. :) And if you go there now it'll look even worse (the old version is still there).

15 hours to go...

[eilsoe]

No worries hun, whatever you make, it's gorgeous :love:


I'll bet people will love it ;)

[thoriphes]

whoa, the first thing I saw on the page was that little dog.

damn that thing scares me

[.soulty]

same thoriphes, dog is cool though, would like to see that animated!

:: best of luck Kit on the site premier. sure it will rock ;)

[senocular]

Kitiara + the phrase "Oh yes..."



...






:drool:






(sorry, had to be brought up ;))

[thoriphes]

oh shut the hell up sen. Where're your manners? :pirate:

[senocular]

;P

...

everyone adores kit. You know other people were thinking it. I was just the only one who said it. :trout:


(btw kit, Im excited about the site's opening :D Im sure you did an awesome job!)

[Soul]

Do we get a sneak look Kit?

[Kitiara]

Originally posted by senocular
Kitiara + the phrase "Oh yes..."



...






:drool:






(sorry, had to be brought up ;)) You have no idea how much that just made me laugh. :P

I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs now, it's all gone over to the web server lot for tonights makelive. Eek.

And don't even mention the dog. I'm going to be putting some items up on eBay soon - an official Churchill clock and an offical Churchill radio. All good quality merchandise not available in the shops. ;)

[eilsoe]

Sen, I refrained from making that comment, but OH NO, YOU had to! :P


Kit should be cautious about what she writes here ;)


or... scratch that Angela :beam:

[Kitiara]

Sneak peak? Oooooo... :beam:

Well, I can't put anything actually online, but I can give you a screenshot of the homepage since it's you guys. :)

Watch out though, it's 800 x 600 ish...

[eilsoe]

"Nodding dog" :P

[Kitiara]

Will people please stop it already with the dog! :P

People actually want to buy the things, so there's got to be a link to where they can get them...

Hey Soul, seen the new advert for Churchill yet? With the pie? And the bird? :P

[senocular]

:pleased:

[Kitiara]

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to how many freaking HTML layers and DIV tags this new design uses? :hangover:

[senocular]

10 :q:

[Soul]

It looks really good kit!

Yeah I've seen the bird advert haha, made me laugh

[Digitalosophy]

i count 10 as well

[Kitiara]

The Wugga Wugga Bird... Mr Cadbury's Parrot is moonlighting for us now. :P We even have postcards of him...

Sen, you're close. :) There's 9. The header, footer and purple bar across the middle is a flat HTML table not on a layer. :)

The design that Management finally chose was so complicated that this was literally the only way to do it other than with layers. I tried tables, but you ended up with about 7 nested, so that was out.

It won't resize, it stays at 800 x 600 whatever your res. When you get inside, the text is on a scrolling layer, on top of another layer which forms the border and edge for the text... It's a nightmare. :sure:

[senocular]

You did good :D

[Kitiara]

Thankee kindly sirs. :) Just one thing though.

Don't look at it in Netscape 4.

Or on a Mac...

:whistle:


:run:

[senocular]

lol seriously?

[neverrain]

Amazing Dawg. :P

Good layout and color set Kit, great work.

Eberg and Roper give it two thumbs up :thumb: :thumb:

-Data :mu:

[Kitiara]

Seriously. :sure:

Net 4 can't cope with the layers at all. It also has issues with some of the gifs. Eliminated transparency in gifs... Failed to help. It throws tables out of whack, despite no %'s being in there and all fixed pixel widths.

In the end, we gave up. Only 0.3% of our users have Net 4, so I for one am past caring. :)

[thoriphes]

That's probably Netscape's problem. You shouldn't make it your own.

[Kitiara]

Yeah, it's just Netscape being buggy. It can't cope with simple td backgrounds, which is where it really comes apart.

But since no-one's got Net 4, it's not too bad. And anyone who does have it should be shot on sight anyway... :P

[BadMagick]

Lookin good Kit! :thumb:

And the site's not bad either :P

.... I'm sorry, but I LOVE the dog!! I know you're tired of people talking about it, but that's just awesome!

Really good work :)

[Kitiara]

I can't believe how much everyone else loves the dog!

[Soul]

I have my own Churchill Dog :bad: It sits on top of my computer and nods at me

[Jasninder]

hey nice site kit..yea i also love that dog but i m more of a germen sheferd fan..had few but they all died after 13 years..pretty heavy ones too 70 kgs each anyway i like the new design on ur site too...i mailed u with few suggestions but i guess u were busy with churchill site and u never mailed back :( anyway this churchill site is chilling cool :P looks better but i d' like to see a different font on buttons other then times new roman..but thats just me :) nice work.

[Jasninder]

...bruised and broken... soul?
aww sorry to see another sad footer and avtaar... footer looks good though .

[fester8542]

Originally posted by Kitiara
I can't believe how much everyone else loves the dog!

You dont like the pooch?!

That dog is the nuts!

[asphaltcowboy]

Originally posted by Kitiara
single-handedly :*(

[Soul]

Originally posted by Jasninder
...bruised and broken... soul?
aww sorry to see another sad footer and avtaar... footer looks good though . going nutz widout her :(

[senocular]

:sure:

[Soul]

I didn't steal his title :sure:

[Kitiara]

It's up!

:beam:

[senocular]

http://www.churchill.com/

[eilsoe]

umm, angela? Why does every page open in a new window? :P

[senocular]

WOOHOO! :D

[nobody]

That's awesome.
Kit, do they give you like a CD chalk full of corny pictures and junk to use for all the buttons and everything? That would be so awesome if they did.

[Kitiara]

Oh God, hours of endless entertainment there... :P

Not everything opens in a new page... The quotation system has to because of SSL and security, so all the customer service options and 'get a quote' links are popups. The Nodding Dog one is too. Everything else should be same window...

[Mik3]

Good Job!
Does anyone know why netscape, mozilla, and safari tend to mess things up a lot more than Internet Explorer?

[senocular]

Originally posted by Kitiara
Thankee kindly sirs. :) Just one thing though.

Don't look at it in Netscape 4.

Or on a Mac...

:whistle:


:run:

[Kitiara]

Originally posted by xxviii
That's awesome.
Kit, do they give you like a CD chalk full of corny pictures and junk to use for all the buttons and everything? That would be so awesome if they did. Pretty much. :sure:

The Design Studio (who do all the brochures, posters etc) have a load of photos that they re-use, and I got given those. Whoop-dee-doo... :P

And don't get me started on other browsers. :) If if ain't IE, then it ain't gonna work... ;)

[senocular]

talented pigeons

[Laslett]

do we like the new site Kitiara......


oh yes yes yes (deep dog accent)

do we think Kits a bit good

oh yes yes yes

[λ]

Originally posted by t3h t3rminator
Good Job!
Does anyone know why netscape, mozilla, and safari tend to mess things up a lot more than Internet Explorer?

because they actually give a crap about web standards :sigh:

(by posting that here I'm not ranting about the churchill site or anything.. infact, I like it :))

[Kitiara]

I thank you. :) And lets face it, anything was better than the old one. :sure:

Trouble is, now I have no work to do. *Twiddles thumbs* Think I might carry on with my own site... :)

[senocular]

Originally posted by Kitiara
Trouble is, now I have no work to do. *Twiddles thumbs* Think I might carry on with my own site... :)

must be nice :sure:

[senocular]

oh.. how about this. The nodding dog page opens in a fitted window when you click on the dog, but thats not the case for the Nodding dog link. Is that right?

[Kitiara]

It's a rarity these days, my social life the past 6 months has evaporated because of that dog-ridden site. :P

The cross browser thing... The trouble is that each browser handles things like td background differently. And the way they wanted the site to look meant that I had to use them (long story, just trust me). So whilst they look fine in IE, soon as you take it into Netscape which treats them in a different way, the whole site looks screwy. :sigh:

And yes, the pigeons are very talented. ;) Actually that funsite is next on my list. It's going to be full Flash. :beam:

[Kitiara]

Originally posted by senocular
oh.. how about this. The nodding dog page opens in a fitted window when you click on the dog, but thats not the case for the Nodding dog link. Is that right? Probably. It's what they asked for in the spec, so it's what they got. Meh. :P

Want to be a Churchill beta tester, btw? ;)

[λ]

just cause I was curious, I ran the site through an HTML validator:

# Line 117, column 51: end tag for element "A" which is not open


</SCRIPT><strong>Home</strong> get a quote</a><br>

:)

[fester8542]

I just noticed a small sizing error on one of your popup windows.

FYI, I am using IE 6.0 @ 1024X768 resolution.

The contest rules are off the screen a bit. You cant fix it because the width and hight of the popup are fixed.

***********
And yes I wanted to sign up for a free bobblehead dog. Stupid UK restriction :(

[Kitiara]

We're an English insurance company, Fester. ;)

[fester8542]

<--------- Culturally Delinquent


Interesting. One of our divisions is located in Marlow England. They prefer to be refered to the as UK.

No offense meant. ;P

[Soul]

Looks good Kit :thumb:

[prstudio]

looks really good!!! :)

even the dog's face says he's creeped out too lololol j/k

[lostinbeta]

One thing I noticed.... no defined background color for any of the pages :x

Sure most people use the default white page background, but mines tan 'cause i'ma tard.


Also all the links open in new windows... is that normal :h:



Other than those... A+ :thumb:

[senocular]

you tard hehe

[.soulty]

sweet stuff kit. interactive stuff is great. :thumb:

[thoriphes]

Nice. Didn't know your emergency telephone number is 999 over there. I'll have to remember that.

[MTsoul]

heh, awesome!

i was wondering.. (since i live in canada), in england, do you say biscuits instead of cookies? it just occured to me that i've had this wonder for ages..

[Game™]

Good Job Kitaira(sorry if spelt your name wrong), a job well done!

[David]

Nice work Kit.

[Marz]

Nice work... But you mgiht wnat to change your outl;ook on cross browser behavior... I literally have noticed more computers coming into the office that uses a browser other than actually using Internet Explorer..

Phoenix seems to be gaining popularity and all other things... I try to always cross browser everyhting when I can... and yes td background is somewhat faulty at times... But layers are the faultiest things in cross browser... Actually I have never pro released a site with layers in functions..

But all in all.. the design is awesome... I just wish I could get the designing part downpat and I could get you the coding you'd need.. *lmfao*

[DariusMonsef]

Kit,

Is there an old version of the site somewhere? So we can compare your wonderfull-ness to the oldness?

[Kitiara]

Not anymore, hehe. :) The old ugly site is dead and gone now.

Cross-browsers... Yeah. Honestly, we do take it seriously. We tried everything we could to make it compatible with as many as possible (poor Asphalt had to sit there for ages and try and make it work better on Net 4).

But one of the advantages of being a massive company and media tagging each page is that we get all kinds of information back. We know the exact percentage of users that use which browser, which OS and whether they're on a PC or a Mac.

Plus we're only dealing with English users here, so nowhere near as many people as American / global sites.

95% of our users are on IE 4 or more. The other 5% is split between Netscape 6/7 (about 3%) and the last 2% is everything else.

And at the end of the day, you have to draw a line somewhere. :sure:

The layers thing... There really was no other option with the design that they wanted. If anyone wants to try and code this baby using tables, then go ahead - if you manage it I'll... I dunno. Eat my hat or something. :)

But although they can be nasty with different browsers, the do have the advantage that I could shuffle them round in the code so it can be optimised for search engines. All the layers with important text and keywords can be moved to the top of the HTML, all the graphical stuff goes to the bottom, and it didn't affect how the finished page looked. :)

[Jasninder]

Originally posted by soul
going nutz widout her :(

aww we are on the same boat man, bed of thorns..tht sucks:*(

[λ]

Originally posted by Marz
Nice work... But you mgiht wnat to change your outl;ook on cross browser behavior... I literally have noticed more computers coming into the office that uses a browser other than actually using Internet Explorer..

Phoenix seems to be gaining popularity and all other things... I try to always cross browser everyhting when I can... and yes td background is somewhat faulty at times... But layers are the faultiest things in cross browser... Actually I have never pro released a site with layers in functions..

But all in all.. the design is awesome... I just wish I could get the designing part downpat and I could get you the coding you'd need.. *lmfao*

it depends what you mean by layers.

I hear a lot of people saying "layers aren't crossbrowser".. true, the design side of them doesn't work in IE < 6 and NN < 5. But you can use tricks like @import and the voice family hack to hide CSS from versions before that. Those versions will see a text-only version.

small price to pay imo for w3c validation and forward-compatibility.

[Laslett]

Originally posted by thoriphes
Nice. Didn't know your emergency telephone number is 999 over there. I'll have to remember that.


yeah for us idiots that can't remember two numbers 9 & 1

[reverendflash]

Originally posted by Laslett
yeah for us idiots that can't remember two numbers 9 & 1

you guys actually had 999 before us. The US thought that only having one number would increase the likleyhood of a cat sitting on the 9 button, and tying up the line...

Honest, that is why we have 911 instead...

Revhttp://aulman.com/rev.gif

[thoriphes]

Well, my guess is, in the land of the Britons, when they're in a panic, all they'd need to remember was one number to smash continually on the dialer until the other end picked up.

[Laslett]

Originally posted by Kitiara
It's a rarity these days, my social life the past 6 months has evaporated because of that dog-ridden site. :P

Does that mean you is now Party Kitiara. Don't you get support and ironing out the bugs period. I've now got to scope out new Credit Risk Management processes system requirements funct specs and tech specs. My six months begins. Unless the new jobs I applied for come through then its less work for mo' money

[Laslett]

Originally posted by soul
going nutz widout her :(


who did you loose? I might have miised a big chunk here

[Soul]

girlfriend

[thoriphes]

bah, girlfriends cost money.

[lostinbeta]

girlfriends are a pain, get a boyfriend :thumb:

[RussianBeer]

girlfriends are a pain, get a boyfriend
Yeah, but then you would have to be big on musical theater :sure: and wear very tight pants...

[lostinbeta]

Says who? :trout:

[RussianBeer]

Trust me, I worked at Banana Republic for quite a bit, I swear some people would come in and BAM!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/features/2002/11/bonfire/images/fire-150.jpg
Everything is flaming..

P.S.
You have to love Madonna too :trout:

[lostinbeta]

Oh you :points finger with limp wrist:

Don't be so stereotypical

[Kitiara]

*Backs slowly out of thread*

[RussianBeer]

lol! Your a charmer Lost, :D

But see, thats what I first thought too, gays arent all feminine like that.. but as it turns out. hell yeah they are! Thight pants, disco, Madona, (sometimes women's tops), techno and rediculous fashion sence!!!

Not bad people...
just
FLLAAAAMMMMINNN'!
:D

[Phat7]

Hell yeah dude, don't get me started on this one :bad:


:P

[lostinbeta]

RB: Rofl, but you're basing this on the ones that go in Banana Republic. Of course they will all be like that, it's Banana Republic!

[RussianBeer]

no worries, our best manager was Flamin' but he knew it, and would sometimes cease to torment us with old-school madonna and play some old Green Day.

[Laslett]

Originally posted by Kitiara
*Backs slowly out of thread*


the way this thread is going you're ok backing out others get out forward!

[Laslett]

Originally posted by soul
girlfriend


When you say you lost her, you put her somewhere and forgot. if this is the case look down the back of the sofa first if you haven't already.


Or she wandered off on her own accord?

In which case you know the answer to this one


STRIP CLUB

come up here and we have Legs 11 and Spearmint Rhino for all those tacky night out or to get so steaming drunk that you'll wake up and not remember a thing. Problem solved .... I think.


Kit has some free time now she'd delivered her rebuild!!!


;) ;) ;)

[mjULTRA]

Looking good Kitty...

I just noticed something on your site, and wanted to ask; Is pet insurance a big seller??